For the travelling to Slovakia
there were discussions during the summer 2000. After it was officially announced
that it will be organized travelling of supporters, everything that remained was to wait for the departure day - September 2nd.
So expected Saturday on September 2nd came and we all gathered together in front
of the City Stadium in Skopje. For this travelling 3 buses were ready to go. The 3
buses with the 150 fans, from who the most of Skopje (about 100) and a little
number from Tetovo, Veles and Kavadarci somewhere at 10 AM started their 750
kilometres long journey from Skopje to Bratislava. After we passed the
Macedonian - Yugoslav border, we entered Yugoslavia and we all knew that it will
be the longest part of the journey because through Serbia we must pass somewhere
70% from the road. During the travelling in the bus which I was, the atmosphere
was great and all of us were impatient to arrive to Slovakia. But the first
problems appeared at Yugoslav - Hungarian border. The Hungarian customs officers
were looking for money to pass the 3 Macedonian buses, but no one of the
Macedonian supporters don't even think about it. Because of that we were enforced
to wait for the permission on the rainy September night on the frontier
crossing at Szeged. After a few strechings and persuasions with the Hungarian
customs officers, somehow we succeed to pass on, of course after we left them
some boxes of cigarettes and bottle of whisky. Certainly this can't be a reason
for breaking the atmosphere between the Macedonian supporters and the 3 buses
continued their journey through Hungary in the rainy September night. On the
Sunday morning we were at the Hungarian - Slovakian border. The thinking of the
most of us that the Slovakian customs officers are different then the Hungarian
and that we will pass quick this last border, showed wrong. And here the same
picture and the same problems. Again looking for money and threats with
searching the buses and long waiting for passing. That happened, after the buses
were searched and the Slovakian customs officers get some bottle of alcohol,
Macedonian supporters were allowed to enter Slovakia.
After that we were on the way to Bratislava, which is 20 km far away from the
frontier crossing. We entered Bratislava and the buses stopped at the stadium of
Slovan Bratislava, which was the venue for the match. Because there were 8 hours
left to the kick-off, me and 3 my friends went to the stadium of Inter
Bratislava, which was near the stadium of Slovan. There was no one on the
stadium so we took some photos on the stands and down on the pitch. Then we went
on a sightseeing of the city. It was Sunday and also some holiday in Slovakia,
so all the shops were closed. But the most of the bars were opened, so after the
sightseeing of the city the Macedonian supporters spend their time in enjoying
the good Slovakian beer and in company with nice Slovakian girls.
Then 8 PM came and it was time for the kick-off. After we entered the stadium
and sat down on the stand which was reserved for us, we placed our banners,
between the most of them were from Skopje and there were also from Tetovo and
Veles. On the stand we noticed some group of Macedonians who came from Vienna to
support the Macedonian national team. Including the smaller group of fans who
came with the plane of the national team, on the stadium were 200 Macedonian
supporters. But the situation with the Slovakian supporters was interesting. On
the stands there were only 8,000 spectators and their support was very bad. It
is unbelieveable that this was a start of the qualifications and the match was
important for the both of teams. But probably the interest for the football in
Slovakia is not so big and that can be the reason for such small crowd on the
stands. From the start of the match the Macedonian fans were chanting their
songs, but our players did not played very well. After one mistake of our
defence in the beginning minutes of the match, Slovakia scored a goal and it was
getting clear there will be nothing from winning a point or three. At the same
time on the stand where we were placed on small incident with the Slovakian
policemen took place. Larger number of the Macedonian supporters left the
stadium in the first half and after that only a small group of us left on the
stand.
In the second half the same picture on the pitch, the Macedonians played very
bad and on the end we were defeated by 2:0. After the match we all went in the
buses and direction - Macedonia. However this was only a start of the qualifiers
for the WC 2002 and we believe that in the next qualfying matches will be much
better.